Secret
by SaphirWereTigrss
Summary: AU The original seven are M.I. 5 agents in contemporary London. What is American businessman Lex Luthor up to and who is Darth Seid? Will they be able to save the day in time? "Our operations are expanding into Europe with a bang!"
1. Files

AU You have been warned, this is based of me watching too much much of a TV show called Spooks (or M.I.5 in some countries)

I don't own anything Spooks or Justice League related. How depressing. :(

Spooks

The days are chaos from the start on the grid, a totally secure network of offices that make M.I 5 HQ, Section D is famous for their own unique style of chaos, seems completely out of hand to the rest of the world yet they somehow all manage to work together and save the day time and again. Their part of the grid is nicknamed the Watchtower and the people themselves the Justice League. The is because they are all totally unique and willing to do anything to get justice served.

There are 7 members of section D at the moment, Kal, Bruce, Diana, J'onn, John, Shayera and Wally.

Kal 'Superman' El: last survivor of an advanced society of people known as the Kryptonians. Originating from Krypton a country unmarked on any map and known to very few other 'advanced' countries. Not much is known about these people, Their physiology is far more advanced than normal humans, giving them all round enhanced physical abilities, even when compared to a well trained human. The society was destroyed by a massive continental disaster. Determined and much stronger than the average human thanks to his heritage, Kal-El is weakened considerably by a certain radioactive ore nicknamed Kryptonite. He is also trained in an unknown but effective style of combat by an unknown source. Nicknamed 'Superman' by Wally due to taking down large numbers of opponents at once.

Bruce 'Bats' Wayne: billionaire playboy to the rest of the world, rich kid with issues and a determination to see justice served to the rest of section D, he funds the team when their government budget can't cover their methods. Usually a bit of a loner, but is starting to very slowly let his walls down around those he is beginning to accept as family. Scarred by the killing of his parents in front of his eyes when he was 8 years old he has trained himself to peak physical and mental condition. Nicknamed 'Batman' due to darker demeanour and ability to hide in the shadows, disappearing and reappearing without a sound.

Diana 'Wonder Woman' Prince: born on a peaceful Greek island shut off from the outside world with only her mother and sisters, Diana is a kind and gentle soul yet a capable warrior. Having only seen the world outside her island home for the first time a few months ago she is quickly picking up it's customs and settling in to her new life as a field officer for section D. Nicknamed 'Wonder Woman' due to great combat skill and determination.

J'onn 'Martian Manhunter' J'onnz: like Kal, J'onn is the last surviving member of his society. A tribe called the Mart-ians, they were a race of peaceful philosophers, killed by a rouge gang of terrorists trying to obtain the resources to remake the world to their liking. Though J'onn knows that force is needed to bring in the bad guys he maintains a vital role at the Watchtower coordinating everyone to separate himself from the violence though he does go out into the field if necessary. Nicknamed 'Martian Manhunter' because of his tribe's name and uncanny ability to find people.

John 'Lantern' Stewart: A strong, strict man that transferred over from the S.A.S. His previous position means he has weapons and combat training that are vital to the group. A great tactician and strategist he gets along well with Wally, who still hasn't worked up the courage what crawled up his trousers when he joined the S.A.S. Nicknamed 'Lantern' because when team members get in over their heads, he's a hope to save their "useless backsides".

Shayera 'Hawkgirl' Hol: Another transfer, but this time from the R.A.F. Lieutenant Shayera Hol is a master pilot and fighter. From a tribe of pilots in the middle east she has made a life for herself in England after an accident separated her from her people, determined and short tempered, she has years of combat and flying training, yet is also quite a good detective. Nicknamed 'Hawkgirl' for fiery temper and aviation skills.

Wally 'Flash' West: Born as Wallace Rudolph West he is nicknamed flash for his incredible speed. He is faster than Kal in a race even with the latter's more advanced physiology. The group's forensic scientist and sense of humour Wally is the centre of the group, always ready with a wisecrack and grin.

"Too right I am!" laughed Wally as he finished looking through the groups files. It had been a very rare quiet day on the watchtower, though everyone knew it was the calm before the storm.

"Wally you haven't been looking through the files again have you?" Diana's voice floated towards him.

"Well I haven't got anything else to do"

"Be thankful, normally we have to do deal with life and death situations everyday."

"Briefing room NOW!" Bruce bellowed across the grid.

"Thanks hotshot, thanks princess," John commented dryly.

As the team assembled in the briefing room they saw the smart board at the end of the table displaying a grainy CCTV picture that they did not like the look of.

"This man is called Dartagnan Seid, he's currently the dictator of a small country called Apokolips" started Kal.

"GCHQ have picked up chatter regarding a terrorist oragnization called Intergang, it is believed that this is run by Seid to help expand his country and take over more land."

"I will speak to Michael Holt at GCHQ regarding this chatter, and see if I can locate it's place of origin." J'onn stated in his usual stoic tone.

"I will check out Dartagnan's background a bit more, speak to those clowns at New Scotland Yard and see if they have any records on him seeing as he was one of them. I believe Arthur Curry was the man in charge of him." Diana said whilst glancing at the papers on the desk in front of her.

"Gotta love the things you find online, apparently Dartagnan means 'leader' only appropriate in a sinister kinda way. Can't we just call him Darth?" Wally piped up.

"Fine, we'll call him Darth. Diana, anything you can find will be useful we need to get as much information on this Intergang before it starts. It seems to be the country trying to expanding but hiding that under a gang label. It could possibly lead to a political situation and that should most definitely be avoided. " Kal finished the meeting.

Everyone left for their desks and started finding out what they could about their enemy. Weather by GCHQ, their own sources or just trawling through files or the internet.

"Bruce, Kal I need you to go and check out Tower bridge, there are reports from the clowns of a suspected bomb in the hydraulics room." J'onn quicly relayed an alert from the local police force, not so affectionatly dubbed 'the clowns' by most, if not all of M.I.5.

"Fine, we'll go and check out the area see what we can find." Bruce grabbed his coat and headed towards the lifts, with Kal not far behind.

Y==============================

Please review! It helps me to write better! Do you like this idea? :-/

And I'm going to threaten you all with a part 2 of this!


	2. Tower Bridge is Going Up?

**Secret II**

**June 16th : Tower Bridge**

Footsteps echoed throughout the room, full of old, yet preserved technology side-by-side with the modern, more effective versions. The room was cold, and when the men stopped, silent.

"No signs of someone tampering."

"Actually, this door looks like it's been forced open."

"So they went in there, have they left yet?"

A metallic clang followed by some muffled shouting.

"I'll go with no." Bruce flattened himself against the wall next to the ajar door, carefully moving round to glance into the next room, where the old tanks had been placed. He could see two men one with shoulder length, blonde hair and a full beard down to his collarbone, the other with shorter, spiked brown hair. The latter was kneeling next to a black plastic briefcase, which was open with it's top to Bruce. This meant he couldn't see what the man was fiddling with inside.

"Boss'll be happy when this goes." drifted through from the brown-haired man. Bruce quickly glanced at Kal, making sure he knew it was an actual threat. The other man was already quietly contacting the Watchtower.

The blonde man gave a harsh, quieter growl in response to the other goon's statement.

"Whad'aya mean we'll be heard? Noone's been down here for centuries." Came the indignant reply as spikey-haired stood up, closing the case as he did so.

"If you're done, we can go meet the boat, they said they'd be waiting for us on the bank below the bridge." Blondie was clearly getting exasperated

"Knowing those clowns they'll be waiting on the North side, even though we told 'em we'd be in the oldest engine room, which everyone knows is on the South side." spikey-haired clearly didn't like his collegues then.

"Let's go and see shall we!" snapped Blondie, having finally lost his temper with his laid-back partner. They both headed over to the stairs on the other side of the room, leading down to the river bank. As soon as they were out of range, Bruce and Kal headed straight for the case.

"Clowns are on the river, heading here from both directions and looking for a small craft with a minimum of three people in it." J'onn's voice drifted through their wires.

"Good. I'll get this disarmed and back to the Watchtower." Bruce's curt reply was due to him focussing most of his attention on the bomb in front of him.

"It's got a remote detonator. I've disarmed the other fail-safes but there's no way of telling weather the remote shows bomb status. If it does and I disarm it, we'll spook whoever had it put it here."

"To be honest, the direct threat of bomb is a bigger problem than letting criminals know that there's someone after them." Kal called from the other side of the room where he had found something the goons seemed to have left behind.

"I can see why you're part of the service." Bruce's familiar deadpan cam floating back.

"Once you're finished being superior, I've found a mobile phone left here by Tweedledum and Tweedledee. It looks like it's a personal one, they must of dropped it during entering." Kal walked back towards Bruce, who had just finished removing the remote detonator from the now de-active bomb. Just to be sure.

"Let's get this back, and see what that phone has on it." Bruce lifted the case and led the way out.

"The phone is owned by a Martin Harris one of the bridge goons, the other two are Russell Morris and Harold Smith. But it's the recent calls on the phone that are interesting, all of them come back to Brain Lockes, a senior guard at a new corporation building." J'onn's statement quickly gathered the other members of the team around him.

"LuthorCorp, We make things grow." Diana read from the screen.

"I saw this in the news, it's a large American company that started of in agriculture and then moved into almost all areas of biotechnology, it's big and looking to London to use as a headquarters to expand into Europe." John explained the slogan with his own knowledge.

"So what's a security guard doing phoning bombers?" Shayera took the question they were all thinking and said it out loud.

"We can go through the phone company's records and see, or rather, hear, just what he's doing." J'onn was already reaching for the phone.

"I want to find out more about this company, this guard seems to have a fairly good job and most people wouldn't want to give that up, so there could be a connection that meant he wouldn't have to" Shayera sat at her computer and started typing.

"Yeah, 'our operations are expanding into Europe with a bang!' brilliant business slogan." Wally's laughter drifted across from his workstation.

"Don't you have something to do Hotshot?"

"John, I am doing something."

"Alright then, something useful! You're sat at your desk doing nothing as usual!"

"John, being in this job, you really should have figured this out by now, in fact all of you should of, but you haven't so let me simplify and explain it. A train station is where a train stops, a bus station is where a bus stops, on my desk I have a work station..."

"Where common sense stops" Shayera interrupted with a sigh.

"While you're all doing the computer work, I'm going to see if this guard will tell us anything, and arrest him even if he does."

"I assume that doesn't necessarily mean asking nicely." Kal smirked as he got up and grabbed his jacket for the second time that day.

"Who said you were coming?" Bruce's reply held a strong undertone of 'because I certainly didn't'

"Common sense, there are times when you have about as much as Wally." This statement earning the long-suffering ex-journalist a patented 'Batglare' as Wally had named them.

"And when was the last time that worked anyway." He continued as he strode over to the lift. His only reply was a 'hmmpphh'.

Climbing out of the jet black Range Rover, Bruce looked up at the massive skyscraper LuthorCorp had built to function as the European HQ, It was 75 storeys high and consisted of several main thick, green painted steel beams forming a curved 'L' shape, following the base parallel to the ground before rising straight up into the air. The gaps between these were filled by teal-coloured glass and you could just make out the silhouettes of workers on the lower levels.

"Here it is, the newest entry for least subtle HQ design." Bruce muttered as he strode towards the entrance, not waiting for Kal to catch up.

"There was something I needed to talk to you about, you've taken overtime to a new level recently, I know it's close to that date, but that is not the nest way of coping with it." Kal's tone was no nonsense as he caught up with his friend, clearly suggesting he wasn't happy with the issue.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

A sigh. "I have no idea why I bother."

They entered the clean, contemporary reception, and headed straight for the main desk. A lightly-built, but very handsome blond man was sat there on the phone, which he replaced as they approached.

"Welcome to LuthorCorp's European HQ, how may I help you today."

"We're looking for Brain Harris, we need to speak with him." Bruce held up his ID.

"He's supposed to be on the top floor, which is Mr. Luthor's office..." he trailed off as they strode straight past and into the lift.

"Straight to the boss, this could be interesting" was Kal's comment on the situation as he looked at his friend.

"What." The monosyllabic reply accompanied by a glare.

"I'm not letting what I said earlier go." Luckily for Bruce the lift stopped and they were facing a large, open office with panoramic windows on three sides and clear views over the beautiful city. In the centre of the room was a large desk at which a man sat talking to a security guard. Neither reacted to the initial arrival of the lift. There were two more guards posted by the lift itself but a quick flash of I.D.'s got them out of the way. Bruce confidently strode towards the desk, the movement earning a reaction from the two men there.

"Well, hello, you must be the M.I.5 agents the receptionist gave me a call about."

"We're looking for Brian Lockes." Bruce cut straight to the point.

"Well he would be the man standing next to me, why exactly are you looking for him?" Luthor's brow furrowed.

"I'm sorry but we cannot disclose any information about ongoing investigations." Kal cut off any further questions from Luthor as he followed Bruce, who was half-dragging, half-leading Brian away from the other occupants of the room.

"We have evidence linking you with a bomb planted and prevented this morning." Bruce pulled himself up to his full height and stared at Brian, his emotionless tone clearing aiding in intimidating the man.


	3. Scale

Secret III

June 16th : Luthorcorp European HQ.

Kal walked slowly across the office to where the billionaire agent had half-lead, half-dragged the unsuspecting security guard. Stopping a short distance away, he listened to the ensuing interrogation.

"What do you know about Harris?"

"Nothing, Nothing I swear"

The panicked tone in the reply; the fast breaths and refusing to look Bruce in the eye. This man was not a good liar, which would have made the agent's jobs easier. If it wasn't for the fact it was evidence in support of a bomb plot. Shame.

"I will ask nicely once more. What do you know about Harris?"

"He's just an acquaintance, I met him whilst I was out with friends once" Brian had added sweating and trembling to the 'giveaways' list.

Batglare.

"I met him while out with friends, he said he could make me some easy money if I looked in the wrong direction for five minutes!" Brian cracked and released his admission in one jumbled mess.

"Elaborate." One word, Bruce's favourite style of communication. Kal checked his watch and readied the car keys, they'd be leaving soon. Brian just trembled as if trying to form words. So he wasn't tough enough to withstand the Bat. He was going to tell all. "Harris didn't seem brilliantly friendly, it was like he wanted a business deal, but he was pressuring my mate into accepting. After a while we got talking. I told him I was a security guard, he told me he had a friend who wanted to visit a person they fancied, and that they would pay nicely if I let them slip through for five minutes. I needed the cash. So I said yeah."

"When. Who?" Bruce and his usual way with words.

"Not yet, tomorrow, at three 'o' clock. I don't know who, I was told to let through a person who would arrive in a sky blue BMW M5 at 3:01 tomorrow." Brian was tugging at his collar, acting like his tie had morphed into a boa constrictor. Then again, between that actually happening and facing the full wrath of the Bat, many criminals would choose the former as the lesser of two evils. Bruce took a few steps away from the terrified man, Kal doing the same. Ice blue eyes met exotic, crystal-like cerulean.

"We act like it's all going to plan and intercept the suspect."

"Definitely, we'll have everyone there, just in case, who's gonna take this?"

"I want it."

"With the amount of work you've been doing recently?"

Another Batglare appearance. Bruce then strode back to Brian and spoke with an emotionless tone to the man, who kept his gaze fixed firmly on the floor. Telling him the plan, for tomorrow, which should give them another lead in this case.

* * *

By the time they'd gotten back to the Watchtower - London traffic was always heavy, congestion charge or not - everyone else had headed home for the night. A sticky note, clearly from Wally was left on the main doors, it read.

'Remember to turn the lights out as you leave, Bats'll still be here and it'll save him the trouble.'

Kal would have chuckled at that, if it wasn't for his friend's current weird behavior. Then again, by definition his friend's behaviour was always 'weird', and this happened on a predictable pattern. So no, not 'weird' just 'worse than usual'.

It was approaching half-past 8 when he had finished his report on Brian and updated the case report. He turned off his computer and sat there for a minute, weighing up the different approaches to this problem. He didn't get the chance to think for long though.

"I'm not going." Good old Bruce, managing to be such a pain he even annoyed the kryptonian that was known for his patience.

"Congratulations on completing a sentence, now log off and get in the car." Blunt and straight to the point, trying to make it clear that he wasn't taking any of Bruce's crap.

A keyboard clicking was his only answer. Kal sighed and got up. He had dealt with this man many times over the years and was not going to change that winning streak very few could ever dream of achieving. Pulling out his phone on the way over he hit speed dial number seven.

"That wasn't up for debate, I've updated all the reports so there is no reason for you to be here. I'm phoning Alfred to let you know you're coming home at a reasonable hour tonight."

That got the billionaire's attention. He turned and glared at the kryptonian standing in front of him.

"When was the last time that worked? Hello Alfred, I just wanted to inform you that Bruce _will_ be home at a reasonable time tonight, and not be staying at work until stupidly late unnecessarily."

A pause as the butler and father-figure on the other end of the line spoke. Bruce mentally winced. He knew what was coming.

"He's been getting home at what time!" Yes, Alfred had done as Bruce thought he would. Brilliant. He kept glaring at his friend knowing that the battle had just gotten tougher. The call ended, the battle resumed.

"Three in the Morning. Three in the morning. What the heck do you even do in here all night!"

"Work."

"If that was true the other six of us would have been sacked." A sigh. "You..." A glare from the taller man now. "You're just hoping to distract me from making you go home." Bruce inwardly groaned, he needed friends who didn't know him well enough to predict his moves. Scratch that. He didn't need friends. He was fine. Another sentence invaded his thoughts.

"Get in the car"

Silence. Bruce turned back to his computer and resumed reading the information on it.

"Get. In. The. Car"

"No. I've got work to do."

"Two sentences in five minutes, I'm flattered. Now get in the car."

More silence. Kal sighed. He was used to this by now, so he didn't even bother being his usual patient self with his friend. If this man still hadn't learnt that he wasn't going to drop this - as proved by the fact he knew the other well enough to be able to fight these battles properly - he was just going to have to win another and maybe it would finally get through his thick skull. In a quick burst of motion he leaned over to the wall and switched off the computer. Bruce gritted his teeth and refused to look at his friend, he wasn't going to give in, if only to protect his pride (not that he would ever admit that).

"Why?" Came the question.

"You already know" He did.

"Then why don't you do anything about it. Other than trying to bury yourself in work."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." At this stubborn reply Kal pinched the bridge of nose and decided to refocus.

"What will it take to get you to get into the car."

"I am perfectly capable of driving myself home."

"Yes, but at what hour?"

"A reasonable hour."

"Your definition of reasonable is wrong."

"I'm never wrong."

"And I'm from Kansas."

Batglare.

"Right, we are going to do something about this. You can give up and go home now. Or you can talk about why you are burying yourself with work."

"And if I choose neither?" Bruce smirked, he was winding Kal up so much he wasn't thinking this through anymore. A little longer and he'd annoy him enough to make him go away. He glanced at his friend. Who was on the phone.

"Alfred, Hello again. Sorry to bother you but Bruce is being an idiot. Again." The smirk on the kryptonian's face was maddening.

"Fine. I'll go home." Bruce ground out through gritted teeth.

"Actually Alfred, he seems to have found some sense inside that massive head of his. I'll drive him home, like I've been trying to do for the past ten minutes." He hung up.

"I don't see why you're so insistent on driving me home."

"Because if I wasn't you'd pretend to go home but come straight back here." Bruce's scowl deepened. He needed friends who couldn't predict him. As he left the grid Kal paused for a moment to turn off the lights.

"I still don't see why you do this, Bruce." He said softly as he caught up with his sullen friend. Who proceeded to ignore him as he got in the car. Another sigh from Kal and they were leaving Thames House, on the road out of the main city and towards Wayne Manor.

"Even you should be able to find another way to deal with it, you have friends. And saying that means they've already refused to give up on you. No matter how much of a git you've been." More silence. No reaction.

"I'm not going to drop this, and neither are the others."

Silence from one. A sigh from the other. As it usually was.

The rest of the trip to Wayne Manor was spent in silence, not because he battle was over, but because Kal knew at least part of what he'd said had sunk in. How did he know? Because Bruce was silent and the usual emotionless mask had slipped and he was now at 'allowing friends to acknowledge I'm not a robot or demon' which only happened when he was trying to get his emotions sorted.

Kal stopped the car outside the manor's front door, which opened to reveal Alfred standing there. Bruce finally moved as he got out of the car, but just before the door closed, Kal heard something that confirmed he'd had _some _impact.

"Thank you."


	4. Introductions

SECRET 4

June 17th ,8am: The Watchtower

"Briefing Room!" the familiar shout echoed across the offices, followed shortly by the equally familiar footsteps as the rest of the team assembled.

"So, what's the plan, Bossbat?" Wally's grin proving the last word was only searching for a reaction. Said reaction was as expected, a brief glare from Bruce.

"You're going in as an intern, which means you can look around most of the building and be hanging around the main lobby for the suspect's arrival."

Wally nodded and scanned through the fake I.D info J'onn handed to him.

"As is often the case, J'onn will be coordinating from here. John and Shay will be in a surveillance van around the corner, Diana on one of the benches opposite the building. Myself and Kal will be around at the back service entrance in case the suspect decides the front is too conspicuous, regardless of which option is chosen the vehicle will have to pass Diana due to the one-way system so we will know when it arrives."

"So I have to go in and, actually work! Hang on a minute, that means I'll be doing two jobs at once, do I get paid for both?" A _look_ from every member of the team gave his answer.

"Well that sucks..."

Diana spoke up, "So the main purpose of this mission is to apprehend the suspect and any weapon they may be carrying, as all we know for sure is that there is a bomb plot going on and we have to stop it."

"Yes, if we stop this we'll find out weather it's a stand-alone or not." Bruce's expression became thoughtful. "Which is what we need to know now in case of simultaneous detonation."

"I'll go ask Beardy and Stupid from Tower Bridge, we've still got them in the holding cells and with the charge of terrorism against them I'm sure they'll be happy to cooperate." Shayera stood and left, with John getting up and jogging after her.

"That charge means they need to be in one piece for the trial." He called to her retreating back.

"I will search the records for a sky-blue BMW, but it probably won't provide much, if any, information." J'onn also got out of his seat and left the briefing room.

"I'm gonna go see if I actually have a shirt that hasn't got bullet marks or smoke on it..." Wally nervously left the room, seeing if his excuse to go home until the mission worked. Nobody stopped him.

"I'm going to check the backgrounds of all the suspects we've got, seeing if there's any ties to criminals or organizations." Kal strode out, leaving just Bruce and Diana.

"I'll see if there's anything suspicious flagged up anywhere else as a sign of cooperative attacks." Bruce was about to turn and leave when Diana stopped him.

"I know it seems a bit off-subject, but I was wondering if you'd like to go out together sometime, you still owe me a dance you know."

He did. He could never forget that mission when the group had uncovered a plot to kill Queen Audrey of Kasnia when the monarch had visited London for trade discussions. Bruce and Diana had gone undercover as guests at the convention held in honour of her visit, their cover I.D's of his as a businessman and hers as an award-winning charity worker had listed them as engaged. He still hadn't gotten Kal for that. But he might not, simply because the two ended up dancing, and, it was amazing. But it couldn't go any further. They were in a dangerous line of work, the chances of getting killed were quite high and he didn't want to upset her with his death. '_Or the other way round_.' A small part of his brain whispered. Bringing his focus back to the beautiful woman in front him, he made up his reply on the spot, luckily he was very good at lying.

"Sorry, princess, I've got business talks for the rest of the month." He quickly left the room before she could reply, though a part of him was doubtful that would stop her.

June 18th 2:55am: Luthorcorp European HQ

"Well, we've got nothing from any other research so all we've got is some pompous idiot arriving in a perfectly engineered German business saloon. Who volunteered to tell the boss?" Wally's voice floated through the wires they were all wearing.

"Since when did we tell the boss, except when we need something." Shayera's light-hearted reply was actually pretty accurate, they had the most autonomy out of all of M.I.5, kind of useful considering their often... unusual methods.

"I see a sky blue BMW, it's heading to the back entrance." Diana's sentence immediately flipped the team into business mode.

"We've got visual, intercepting now." Bruce's confirmation came back as he put the Range Rover into gear and moved forward to block the Beemer just as it pulled off the road.

"Wait, there's another, heading to the front entrance. I'm going to enter the lobby in case Wally needs assistance, we can check for any more trouble via surveillance cameras." Diana briskly strode across the street and pushed open the glass door just before the saloon pulled in to one of the parking spaces in front of the skyscraper.

"I have the CCTV images, there is another car of the same model at the junction." J'onn's tone held no emotion but the words still carried bad vibes.

"I've got visual, it's sky blue, seems to be heading for the side entrance, me and John will follow and observe, intercepting if necessary." Shayera was already climbing out of the van as she finished her sentence.

Bruce and Kal climbed out of the SUV as the driver of the Beemer did the same. She was tall with long black hair, and what would be considered quite beautiful, but there was something sinister about her smile.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" She drew herself to her full height, but still had to look up at the two.

"Metropolitan Police, we're cracking down on stolen vehicles and just need to see your paperwork, madam." Kal took the lead using the cover story they'd created.

"Just one second it's in the car." The woman leaned into the vehicle and pulled out a sleek black folder, flipping through and removing a several pages, she handed them to Kal.

"This is the car's paperwork, it's a company car, hence the bad choice of colour." The obviously fake smile stayed in place throughout, even though she seemed slightly unnerved by Bruce's still silence.

"In that case I'll need to see a proof of identity from you," Kal replied flipping through the paperwork. Legion Demolitions Ltd. He would need to check that out later.

There was a slight hesitation from the woman, and the smile wavered for a second, but easily long enough for the two agents to pick up on it. She flipped through the folder again and pulled out a passport. Again, she handed them to Kal. The name on the passport was Carol Ferris, and as Bruce took a few steps away and pulled out his phone Kal knew J'onn was now checking. But all the paperwork he had seemed in order, so he couldn't see a problem. That was, until Bruce shot him a look that said otherwise, he excused himself and walked over to where the billionaire was stood.

"J'onn says though she owns and runs her own company, Ferris Aircraft, she works for Star Sapphire Jewellery." He didn't need to actually voice the question 'So why is she driving a Legion Demolitions company car?'

"We'll just have to ask her." Kal sighed and walked back to where the woman was standing. Fake smile still plastered on her face.

"Miss Ferris there seems to be a problem, we understand that you run your own company..." He paused giving her a chance to react.

"That is correct." She gave no further information, meaning she probably had something to hide.

"But you also work for Star Sapphire Jewellery?" he turned the statement into a question.

"The aircraft business is a bit slow with the current economic downturn and I've found common interests with the other employees of the company." was the simple reply.

"So why are you driving a Legion Demolitions company car?" That was the question. It seemed she knew that as well as the smile dropped for a good few seconds, before it came back accompanied by gritted teeth and almost a glare.

"Ferris Aircraft and Legion Demolitions are in discussions about trade deals, I was leant the car as a sign of goodwill. Is that all?" Both agents knew it wasn't, even as Kal handed back the paperwork and Bruce moved the Range Rover out of the way. Once she was gone, Bruce just glared at the dashboard and muttered just loud enough for Kal to hear.

"It looks like we might have another suspect."

Lobby

Diana walked into the lobby and sat down in the waiting area at the front, picking up a magazine but actually keeping an eye on the man who'd gotten out of the blue BMW at the front, he walked past reception and used an access card to bypass the barriers. There wouldn't have been anything unusual about this, it was how most of the employees got in, but he was clearly not an employee, the clothes, bag and walk all suggested otherwise, with the looks the actual employees gave him sealing the deal. Diana kept an eye on the man as Wally made his way through the barriers and said something. The suspect was of an average height but lanky for it, he had pale skin and hair; it made for quite an off-putting appearance. He glared at Wally and tried to sidestep him. The agent took a step back in front and tried his best to look like a scared intern.

"I'm sorry sir, but we're trialling a new security system, you'll have to check in at the employee desk, it's round to the left of the building." He scratched the back of his head and looked down at his shoes. The man made a sound that was almost like a hiss, and glared at him, reptilian eyes made Wally just a little creeped out. The redhead subtly glanced at where Diana was, she'd moved, sticking to the improvised plan. Good thing J'onn could hear every word he said, or they'd be in a bit of bother by now.

"Lead the way." a smooth yet raspy voice brought his focus back to the man in front of him. Wally quickly turned and walked towards the desk where he knew Diana would be waiting, having flashed her I.D to clear the area of actual employees. As they approached the desk he gestured to the black haired woman now sat there.

"You'll have to check in with her then we'll get you on your way, sorry for the inconvenience!" As soon as the words had fallen out of his mouth he retreated to where he was supposed to be working.

Diana looked up as the man approached and applied a well-practiced fake smile.

"Hello sir, I just need some I.D, car registration papers, and a signature and you can carry on as normal, thank you for your cooperation and again Luthorcorp apologizes for the inconvenience."

The man hissed again but handed over a passport and car paperwork, Diana took it and handed back a visitor book she'd found after some quick searching.

"Sign here please." Whilst the suspect was distracted she quickly noted down the basics of the passport and car details, they could retrieve the full files later. She noted with interest that his name was Corcoran Head, unusual enough to be found easily. Finished quickly, she handed back the passport and opened the gate to the main part of the building.

"Thank you sir, and we hope you enjoy your visit to Luthorcorp."

Now it was time for her to get out of here with the information she'd found.

Side Entrance

"Excuse me, sir Metropolitan Police, we're investigating a spate of thefts and as such are checking the I.D's of people entering certain buildings that have been hit repeatedly." John quickly grabbed the man's attention before he entered the building.

"So you need to see some identification?" The man's voice was smooth and polished, but held an undertone of something related to contempt, as if he were above these people. He was of average height and very skinny, and clearly in his late 40's with grey hair, strangely grey skin, and a pinched face. Yet his eyes still held something sinister and shadowy below the surface.

"That is correct, sir. Things such as a driving licence or passport would be perfect. And preferably information on the car so we can rule it out of the investigation." John maintained a professional air. Not giving away anything to the suspect. The aforementioned suspect reached into the briefcase he was carrying and retrieved a passport and a few sheets of paper, which Shayera promptly took from him and noted down the details, handing them back after only a few seconds.

"The car is a company car I see?" Shayera asked the suspect

"Yes, it's my son's, I'm borrowing it for the day." The man had a legitimate-sounding reason.

"Thank you for your cooperation, sir and we hope you have a nice day." The closing sentence from Shayera accompanied by a fake smile and all three of them were on their way.

"Time to get back to the Watchtower and see what we've got."

Watchtower: 3:30pm

The team had all arrived back around the same time, and had immediately assembled in the briefing room. Well, not immediately, everyone had gone to the small kitchen to grab a cup of tea and a snack. Or in Wally's case a large BLT followed by a pack of six doughnuts. It was hard to believe how much he ate and still stayed so skinny!

"So now we have 3 more suspects. Carol Ferris, Corcoran Head and Richard Swift." Bruce started the meeting and explained about Ferris, bringing up her passport information on the large screen at one end of the room.

"She's 5' 7" is 32 years old and owns her own company, Ferris Aircraft, which is doing very well even in the economic downturn. So it's hard to explain why she works for Star Sapphire Jewellery as well." He watched as the faces of those who hadn't been present for the initial meeting all turned to some version of intrigue or thoughtfulness at this strange behaviour.

"She says it's because she has common interests with her fellow employees, but it's a very flimsy reason. What makes her even more suspicious is that the car she was driving, was a company car, from Legion Demolitions. She insists that her company and Legion are in trade talks and the car was merely a sign of goodwill. But the fact it's the same as the others says something is up." Everyone took a second to process this information, before Diana took the laptop linked to the screen and brought up more information.

"This is Corcoran Head. He's 36 years old and is 6' 2" He's an ex-circus contortionist and has been involved with several high level thefts and theft attempts. The car he was driving was a sky-blue BMW M5, which we have confirmed is a Legion Demolitions company car. We didn't risk asking why he had it, he seemed reluctant enough to give away the information we got.

With that Diana passed the laptop to Shayera who brought up the file of the third and final new suspect.

"This is Richard Swift, he's 6' 2" and 46 years old. He is an aristocrat with no criminal record but a strange, sinister reputation. He keeps himself to himself and is unpopular amongst everyone who has ever met him. This includes the many businessmen who he has dealt with, but he is said to have some standards." At this point John took over.

"He said the car was borrowed from his son, only problem with that? No son. Not even in a relationship."

"So all three are suspicious, but we don't have valid reason to bring them in for questioning. Not to mention we're still missing something massive here, one bomb placed by thugs, to an oblivious security guard and suddenly we've got three far more sinister suspects. Anyone else think the Tower Bridge bomb was just a small part of a big plot?" Wally summed up.

"Something interesting though," Kal looked up from the laptop he'd been using throughout the meeting, "Legion Demolitions is a subsidiary of..."

"Luthorcorp." the rest of the team finished at the same time.


	5. Patience

Secret 5

June 17th 11:37pm the Watchtower.

'_First things first, what did they know? There was a plot or conspiracy, and they had to stop it. So, What? The plot involved bombs and could endanger thousands of lives. Target? Unknown. Not good. When? Unknown. Getting worse. Why? Unknown. Most definitely not good enough. How? Unknown. Okay, this was genuinely making him angry now. Who? Three suspects, unconnected but all linked by cars from the same company, a Lexcorp subsidiary. Time for more research_.' He started typing. The lights flicked on. '_Brilliant_'

"Bruce." It was Kal, coming to fetch his friend after Alfred (subtly as ever) alerted him to the fact that 'Master Bruce' hadn't come home yet.

"Bruce, I thought we'd had this conversation." No reaction from the billionaire, he was focused intently on whatever he was doing on the computer. Like he was whenever he found something, usually something that turned the case around or at the very least put them a step ahead of the problem. Kal sighed, he wasn't going to interrupt, yet.

For a while all that was heard was the clicking of keys on the keyboard. Then Bruce stopped, and leaned back in his chair, that smug smirk Kal knew all-to-well in place.

"Okay, I'll bite, what have you got?" The kryptonian just decided to humour his friend.

Bruce's smirk grew and the billionaire began. "I was thinking,"

"First time for everything." Came the snarky comment form the ex-reporter.

A glare. "Really?"

"Yes, really this is the second time this week I've had to come after hours to drag your backside back to the manor." Kal allowed a bit of his frustration to manifest as a snappy attitude.

"Anyway, I realized that if the suspects all got company cars, someone high up in said company had to be communicating with them, so I checked the company's records, it's only a week old and has three staff, Russell Morris, Martin Harris and Harold Smith. Meaning..."

"Luthorcorp is linked to the bomb, which was either a test run or an initial distraction... Those three are a way of running it without it linking back to the entire company, hence why the security guard was contacted by people 'outside' the company." Kal finished.

"Exactly. So I found the company has a number, but it is mobile, which is unusual. I checked all the calls to this and found our three suspects and four other people. If Luthor wanted to meet these people, and I know this is a long-shot assumption, he could have given these three the cars, but the others may have said they'd make another way to the meeting, hence why we only ran into three. The meeting theory comes from the fact they all turned up at the same time. And the other four idea comes from the other four that made up the calls list." Bruce explained.

"And the other four?" Kal questioned, Bruce pressed a few keys and four files came up.

"Kuri Marayama. Martial artist, very good with a katana, no criminal record.

John Corben. Professional con-man, extensive criminal record, miraculously, not only survived but recovered fully from a very serious car crash.

Barbara Ann Minerva. Geneticist, well-known for splicing research. No criminal record.

Finally, Ulrich Humanez, Biologist specializing in brain activity, known for 'mental abilities' things like low-level telepathy, hypnosis, stuff people are often sceptical about. No criminal record."

"So now we have seven suspects."

"And they're all within commuting distance of London, they've all contacted Legion Demolitions, which is run by the three Tower bridge bombers. Which is a brand new LuthorCorp Subsidiary." Bruce summarized.

Kal smirked. "Well, you'll have a lot to tell the others, and a chance to form a plan based on this knowledge tomorrow."

Bruce glared and opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted.

"You know when Diana was taken hostage?"

The glare intensified.

"And the video of you singing to get her released?"

Full-blown Batglare.

"That will end up as everyone's computer desktop by tomorrow morning if you do not just give in for once.

"I don't care as long as Diana doesn't know." came the billionaire's bluff. This earned him a genuine face-palm from his friend.

"For someone who's apparently a genius, you certainly seem to forget one very important fact a lot."

"What?"

"I know you. Now get in the car."

Bruce sighed and turned off the computer.

Following his friend out, Kal smirked, no way was he telling Bruce he'd already shown Diana.

June 18th 8:00am: the Watchtower

"We've got seven to investigate!" Wally's seemed slightly surprised at what Bat's late-night work had turned up.

"Well done, hotshot, that's the highest number you've ever counted to!" John's relaxed jibe showed he was happy to get on with the investigation.

"We'll all take one each. Find out what we can and build a proper action plan on the results." Bruce explained his line of thinking. "I'll take Kuri Marayama..."

"Bagsy Ulrich Humanez!" Wally interrupted.

"I hope that's not just to make fun of his, unfortunate, head dimensions." John warned.

"Nonsense, Wally just sees similarities." Shayera interjected with a smirk, Wally just stuck his tongue out at her in response.

"Very well, this Miss Minerva looks interesting, I'll see what I can find on her." Diana stopped the war before it began.

"I'm going to look into John Corben, something is fishy about him..." Kal trailed off in thought.

"Other than the extensive criminal record as con-man?" All this earned Bruce was a look that carried large levels of 'we both know you're the current idiot of the day'.

"I'll look at Corcoran Head."

"I'll take workaholic Carol Ferris, which leaves J'onn with Richard Swift." John and Shayera wrapped up the conversation and five members of the team got up to begin their task.

"Hey, I know this is inappropriate timing, but, we haven't had a chance to just chat in awhile, do you want to go out and grab dinner together later?" The ex-SAS soldier asked the lieutenant. The latter looked up and gave a small smile,

"That would be good." The smile was returned. The brief moment was cut short by Wally's shouting

"Oi, lovebirds, don't have a go at me about not doing any work!" Both members left in the meeting room sighed and headed to their respective workstations. Neither missing the opportunity to whack Wally on the way.

"Ow!"

June 18th 12:00 The Watchtower

"We have full backgrounds on all of our main suspects, but no evidence. Our best plan of action is to stake out Legion HQ and wait for them to slip up." Bruce summed up the findings of the last four hours in one sentence. There had been nothing that linked any of the suspects to the bomb plot for sure. Yes, they probably knew how many times each of the suspects had breathed in their lives, but it wasn't _evidence_.

"Bagsy not taking a shift with Wally." John's statement came immediately after Bruce's and was accompanied by a deadly serious expression.

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Denial from the redhead.

"Yes, you are!" Six other voices soon shut him up. For all of three seconds.

"Can I not take a shift at all? Stake-outs are bor-ing!" After unintentionally turning the last words into a whine, Wally glanced around the table to see if anyone had actually listened to him. He got a surprising response.

"You can got to the British library, see what you can find out about anything related to the case." Bruce watched his colleague's reactions to this assignment.

"Wally! A library! That's never gonna work!" John half-squawked, then just simply blinking at Wally's reply.

"Actually libraries are cool, and there's this stoichiometry thing I've been wanting to check out for ages and..." He trailed off as he realized the others were simply staring at him. "I'll stick to the mission, honest." A small smile from Kal,

"We don't doubt that Wally."

June 18th 13:00 The British Library

"Stupid traffic." Wally muttered under his breath as he made his way to the main desk of the library. Contrary to popular belief – and his normal actions – he wasn't stupid. In fact he was almost the opposite. Being a forensic scientist had required a brain, and then the leap to M.I. 5 agent had required the intelligence to adapt and expand his skill set. So no, he wasn't stupid, he just acted immaturely sometimes. And, to be fair to those who assumed he was, he had pushed the childish act further than fact to keep them away from the point he was making here.

He'd just passed one of the staff desks, when he remembered something he'd seen earlier in the day – he was researching Ulrich Humanez, and he'd seen that the man was an intellectual; living within commuting distance to London. So surely he'd come here, because let's face it. If a person like that wants some new information, this is a good place to start. He grinned and made a beeline for the nearest desk, flashing his I.D. He spoke to the worker there. "Is there any record of an Ulrich Humanez coming here?"

the librarian tapped a few keys and then turned the screen so Wally could see it.

"Yes actually, sir, he has borrowed a book called 'Champions of Intellect'. It will still be in the return pile of you would like me to retrieve it for you."

The grin grew, "that would be brilliant!"

Retreating to the reading room with his new book, Wally looked at it properly for the first time. It was a thick volume, with a crimson cover and gold lettering in that classic serif style, it looked old. When the cover was opened, Wally saw that this volume was from the 1950's, the actual text was published in 1800. Right at the peak of the industrial revolution if he remembered correctly. Selecting a comfy looking chair, Wally sat down, pulling his legs up so they were lying bent sideways underneath him. He just stared at it for a few minutes. That vibe, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't welcoming either, it was neutral, but a clearly scary neutral. And it was coming from the book in his hands. Pushing that train of thought aside before he remembered that movie he'd seen about cursed books, he opened it and read the prologue.

_'Since the dawn of time, man has had good, and man has had evil. Whilst both are necessary for balance, one can still maintain authority over the other. This text is an exploration of how this has changed throughout the evolution of civilizations. Why and how evil and humanity's many flaws have created villains, but also how good and humanity's strength has created guardians.'_

Well, not his usual stuff, but hey, why not try something new? Wally made sure his phone was on silent and kept reading.

June 18th 13:00 Legion Demolitions HQ

All was quiet on Kesnill industrial estate. Which was a shame, because both Diana and Shayera were itching to do something. They were in unit 14, which they'd claimed via resources and were using to stakeout unit 13, Legion Demolitions.

"I hope Wally's found something useful, because this mission is stagnant by normal standards, and going backwards at 70 miles an hour compared our usual standards..."

Shayera's boredom was clear in her voice, as she repositioned her headphones.

"Though hopefully we'll get an interesting phone call sooner or later."

"I don't know, if they mentioned our cover stories, they may have been alerted to the fact no official police operation was going on in the area when we stopped them. Not to mention that they were the only ones stopped." Diana's brow furrowed as she thought over the scenarios.

"You think we spooked 'em? Even if we did I've got a feeling this lot are in a game that has stakes far too-high to quit on something like that, they have clue what we have and haven't got on them and a lot too lose of they cluck at the wrong time." Shayera knew that the improvised detail collection was painfully obvious, but if this lot were playing the game the agents thought they were, it didn't matter. The two agents lapsed into silence when a ringing tone came through the headphones Shayera was wearing, "We've got an incoming call."

"_Legion Demolitions, what can we do for you?" a male voice, sounding bored out of their tiny little mind._

"_I wish to arrange another meeting with the man in charge of the company." a female voice, strong and clear, this was a woman who knew what she was doing all the time.#_

"_We can do that, when and where?" _

"_I do not care about the location, I wish to see him sometime before tomorrow evening, to keep the business flowing smoothly." _

"_Of course, we'll tell 'im and get back to you Miss Marayama." The male voice had perked up slightly but clearly wasn't used to a job like this. The name, that was one of their suspects. _

The headphones went silent as both phones were hung up, and Shayera turned to the dark-haired woman sat beside her, waiting expectantly,

"Looks like we'll soon have a meeting to crash." A smile accompanied this statement and a similar smirk crossed Diana's, finally, some action.

June 18th: 17:30

Wally lowered the book so it was lying on his lap, he'd realized soon after he started reading that it was a massive text, he blinked as his eyes woke up after staring at the pages for so long. Checking the time on his phone, he did a double-take. 'Well, not my usual stuff but still engrossing. Hang on, if I find that stoichiometry book now I can get it and get back in time to tell the others what I've found.' Placing the bulky book in his satchel, he headed back to one of the desks to find what he was looking for, hoping the traffic wouldn't be truly evil.

The Watchtower: June 18th 18:30

The traffic was evil. Wally had gotten back half an hour after everyone else had gone home. Well, almost everyone.

"What have you got?" Wally jumped

"Seriously Bats, not cool. Shouldn't the combined force of SuperButler have kicked you out by now?" the redhead was rummaging through his bag, trying to find the book, seriously, it was massive, it shouldn't be this hard to find. Unless he had a TARDIS or subspace bag, or something.

"Aha!" And with that cliché exclamation and flourish, he presented the volume to the billionaire.

"Have you read it yet?" Said billionaire was scanning the prologue.

"Not all of it! But I've made a good start, it seems that this Ulrich Humanez – the one who borrowed it - is trying to find justification for this groups action's or is just interested in that area of mumbo-jumbo. The bit I read says that for every bit of good or evil there _has_ to be a counter-measure, but the problem is it's up to whatever is good or evil to create this. It explains using a model, Lords of Chaos and Order, you can't have one without the other, but both need willing representatives. So if the Lords of Order suddenly said 'bored of this' and gave up, Chaos would run amok and the balance would be out the window. It also says that the most effective way of keeping this balance is by having equal numbers, but one side stronger than the other, which is why, when it looks back into history, the numbers are equal but the slight variation comes in one side being slightly stronger than the other." Wally spoke at his usual fast pace, but still made sense.

"So it seems unrelated to the bomb and plot." Bruce clarified

"Yeah, anything else?" The trademark grin grew as the dark-haired man retrieved an evidence vial and placed a hair in it.

"Need you to analyse this tomorrow, found it trapped in the spine of the book, suggesting it was left there by someone who had clearly read the book before you." Wally looked at it as he took it to his, yes, _his, _forensics station, it was a grey hair a few inches long, nothing stood out about it now, but he would see what tale it told tomorrow. He placed it on the work surface and turned to leave, noting Bruce was already on his way out.

"Hallelujah!" He yelled after him, making sure to wait a few minutes to let the older man leave before risking an exit.


	6. Ore

Secret 6

The Watchtower : June 19th 8:00

"Yesterday, Miss Marayama contacted Legion Demolitions and requested to arrange a meeting. This meeting is taking place at Legion Demolitions' company building at 10:30 today, we'll all be there and

the plan is to find out what we can, then sneak in and arrest both Miss Marayama and Lex Luthor." Diana started the day with a mission plan.  
Bruce took over, "John and Wally will be in the surveillance van, Shayera and Kal will be waiting at the building's south entrance, ready to go onto the roof in case they try to leave that way. Me and Diana will be at the east side. J'onn will be co-ordinating form here."  
"We have bugs inside and external surveillance equipment, we will retrieve all of

the information we can from these, once the meeting is definitely over, the six of you will all move in, trapping the two, in the case further support is required, we will have special forces on standby and within range." J'onn finished the plan,

ending the meeting as everyone went to grab their gear and get into position.

10:30

"What about that dance?" Bruce inwardly groaned at the question, 'not now princess...'  
"I said I had meetings until the end of the month." A neutral reply.  
"Why do you refuse to acknowledge something that is clearly there?" Uh-oh, she was mad, and that didn't bode well for him.  
"Princess, we're on a mission, now is not a good time." Yet another attempt at avoiding the matter completely.  
"We have at least

half-an-hour of their conversation, so why don't we do the same? Why do you refuse? Oh wait, it might cut into your brooding time."  
"One, dating within the team always leads to disaster. Not to mention there are actual agency rules against it.

Two you're practically a princess from an isolated Greek utopia, and I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues. Three, if my enemies knew I had someone special, they wouldn't rest until they'd gotten to me through her."  
During the short

monologue, Diana's hands had come to rest on the steering wheel of the car they where sitting in, and were now gripping it so tightly Bruce wondered why the steering wheel hadn't buckled.  
"Next." was the angry, one-word reply.  
Luckily for Bruce, J'onn chose that moment to interrupt, "The meeting is coming to a close, move in." With that, both all six of the agents were out and moving. Quickly racing through the corridors with Diana right behind him, Bruce arrived at one of the two doors in the top floor meeting room, knowing that John and Wally would be going to the other and Kal and Shayera would already be on the roof. "Go." he spoke clearly into his wire and kicked in the door, as the same happened the other side.

The two suspects in the room looked shocked for only of a split second before charging for the roof door, the agents following.

On the roof, the two suspects met Kal and Shay, the latter raising a solid steel pip she'd picked up and swinging it at

Marayama's head. With skill borne of years of training, the martial artist swiftly moved left, raising a hand to strike the pilot's back as her own momentum carried her past. The hand fell but Shayera twisted and blocked it with the pipe at the last

second, bringing her leg up quickly into Marayama's side, the other took a step back, stunned long enough for Hawkgirl to land a solid uppercut, taking her out.

As a result of the ladies' fight, Luthor had been stuck with Kal, the sinister

businessman knew without a doubt he had a problem, he couldn't beat this man in hand to hand combat. Seeing the agent wasn't going to make the first move, he took a swing, hoping the green rock set in the ring he always wore on his right hand would help. As

was predicted by both sides, Kal easily sidestepped the hit, and knocked Luthor out with a simple blow to the head. Bruce arrived to handcuff Luthor.  
"Well that was easy." the billionaire quickly bound Luthor's hands and handed the unconscious businessman to John to move to the waiting cars. Noticing the kryptonian's mind was elsewhere he frowned slightly. "What."  
"Nothing major, I just had a second of feeling slightly nauseous." was the reply as the two headed back down and out

of the building.  
"What would you know about nausea? You don't get sick." The statement was true, never once had the taller man gotten any form of illness in his life, adding more to his Wally-given 'Superman' title.  
"Exactly. It was only midway through Luthor's swing, just for a second. Probably nothing." A dismissive hand gesture as the group reassembled.  
"Me and Wally will search this building, Diana and Shay and taking these two back for questioning, leaving you two to use the warrant we've been given to search Luthor's house and office in England." John quickly explained and everyone was on their way.

11:16 Luthor Mansion  
Out in the middle of Cumbria, surrounded by hills and valleys, both covered in lakes, sat

Luthor's mansion. A massive building from the Victorian era, it had 3 storeys, was split into two wings and beautiful architecture. The house was at the bottom of a long gravel driveway with perfectly landscaped gardens on either side.  
"Seems like Wayne Manor has a bit of competition then?" Kal couldn't resist the slight prod.  
"Not really, this is just one of the bunch, England's full of places like this, really doesn't help the stereotyping, though the national trust is probably the worst offender." Bruce

immediately switched to the defensive, though it was subtle.

Reaching the end of the drive, Bruce parked in front of the oversized doors in the centre of the equally oversized porch.  
"You know Lois said something a few days ago, she was interviewing an earl, and it hadn't gone in her favour, so as she left she said - loudly - 'people who need houses of this scale are clearly compensating for something'. The former reporter was disappointed when Wayne didn't dignify the jibe with a response.

As the pair stepped onto the porch, one half of the massive front door swung open. Stood there was a short man with a stereotypically evil black moustache and glare.

"What can I do for you gentlemen?" the usually pleasant phrase ruined by the cold tone to the voice. Bruce just pushed past the butler into the house, shoving the warrant towards the sinister man as her did so and headed into the main lobby.

"As you can see we have a warrant to search the premises, if you could gather all of the staff and occupants into one room that would be very helpful." Kal only paused for a moment to explain before jogging after Bruce.

"Glad to see your manners are at their usual impeccable standard," a slight dig,

"I'm not one for pleasantries." the monotone reply,

"I'm sure Alfred would testify to that, he's had the unenviable job of trying to teach you the meaning of that word." an equally monotone finish. Bruce ignored him as he found the door he was looking for, the one that lead to Luthor's office. He entered and looked around the large, airy, and well-lit room. The wall opposite the door had been replaced by panoramic windows, a large light-coloured wooden desk complete with black leather office chair in front of it, facing the door. The wall to the left of the entrance was had built in filing cabinets, of the same wood as the desk, all along it's lower half. Kal watched as Bruce took a few strides into the room, looking around. Probably for a safe of some sort, which wasn't going to be found without some effort. He walked past his friend and started checking the desk. A few standard business papers, but nothing yet incriminating, looking in a simple silver box on the desk found something interesting though, a large Desert Eagle pistol.

"I think I've got something that will help." he held up the gun as Bruce looked up from where he was crouched by the filing cabinets. "We could probably hold him on a weapons charge, giving us a little more time to figure out what's going on." He watched with interest as he watched Bruce return his attention to the filing cabinets fiddling with one in the centre, "What are you doing?"

"Finding out what is going on." the billionaire took a step back and swung what should have been a drawer open in the same way as a standard door. Behind the wooden façade, the door was several inches of solid metal, as was the rest of the unit. A hidden safe. Looking inside the safe, there were two sets of small shelves running along the sides, the back being taken up by a large bench like container that sat along the lower half of the back wall of the safe. There was a single central lock on it.

"Judging by the colour of it, I'd say it's lead, which is unusual anywhere now." Bruce spoke referring to the back box.

He got up and went over the the desk to look for a key, rifling through the drawers he found several papers with what looked like information about an ongoing research project to do with 'meteor rocks' there was a picture of a green, faintly glowing lump of rock on the page. He put the papers down as he found what he was looking for, moving back to the safe he unlocked the box with a small 'click' lifting the lid a sickly green glow emanated from the box, identical to the one on the research papers. He frowned, this was something he didn't recognize, and if he didn't recognize it, it was rare. His musings were interrupted by Kal, who'd moved to the other side of the room.

"That nausea's come back," though the way he was leaning against the wall rubbing his temples could have given that away.

"And?" Bruce prompted, sensing there was something else.

"This may sound stupid..." Kal started,

"As does most of what you say," came Bruce's dry interjection. All he received in reply was a glare. "I said most," he defended.

"The nausea is worse over where you are," Kal got back to the point. Bruce closed the lid on the box and put it down. As he was standing up Kal spoke again,

"It's gone."

"Completely?" an faint undertone of disbelief from the billionaire. His frowned slightly as he started thinking. What was the common factor, from no sickness _ever_ to twice in a week, something had to have changed. Not to mention the short times of the sickness, it had to be a single factor, it was incredibly unlikely for multiple to coincide twice. Was there anything about the first time that was the same as the second? He remembered the incident with nearly perfect clarity, heck, he remembered everything with nearly perfect clarity. The plan, the roof, Luthor - and that glowing ring had caught his eye...

The ore. That ring looked like it could be made from the ore he had found, and the lead – famous for being able to stop certain types of radiation – box had been open fro the exact length of the nausea. Was he right? There was only one way to find out, he picked up the box from the top of the cabinet, and moved across the room to stand beside the journalist. He opened the box. And could have sworn his friend flinched, just before he started slouching against the wall, looking pale, clearly not feeling well. Worryingly, this was only a small piece, what could a large chunk do? Bruce closed the box and grabbed his friend's elbow. "Sit." The journalist offered no resistance and sat against the wall. Bruce crouched down in front of him, and looked straight at him. "This," he began indicating the metal box, "is what's causing it."

"A glowing green rock?" came the incredulous reply. Bruce just opened the box again.

"Okay... A glowing green rock..." a slightly pained statement. The box was closed and placed on the desk. "Don't move until you feel fine." Another command as Bruce checked Luthor's desk for any more of the research papers on the rock. If he could find the information on it maybe he would be able to figure out why it was effecting someone who was usually a man of steel.


End file.
